Hi everybody!
Just wanted to say: Thanks for voting for me in the Iron Foodie Challenge.
I got sixth. Not bad for a relative beginner. It comes with no further prize except a warm and fuzzy feeling. Mmmmm!
Showing posts with label Iron Foodie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Iron Foodie. Show all posts
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Friday, December 10, 2010
I is for Iron Foodie, Prequel 3
or E is for Easy Toasted Ravioli
Before I launched into my Iron Foodie recipe, I decided to do a Proof of Concept pre-run (Mythbusters fan, yes).
I'd found plenty of easy-ish looking Toasted Ravioli recipes out on the interwebs, but I had no idea whether or not they would wind up tasting like the real thing.
Hey, what better time to take on a completely untried recipe than Thanksgiving? Oh, just about any time, I would normally say. Since I, however, am an experienced member of The School of Turkey Basting, I wind up with a fair amount of free time in the kitchen on Feast Day. So I jumped in.
What I Did:
1 egg
2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream
1 cup stuffing cubes
1 pumpkin cookie, stale
frying oil
1 package of Spinach and Cheese Ravioli
1 jar of Vodka sauce
1) Use a fork to mix together egg and cream in a shallow bowl.
2) Put the stuffing cubes and cookie into food processor and mix until the cubes are crumbs. Place in a bowl or on a small plate.
3) Fill a skillet with oil for frying (I like to go about 1/2 inch deep. You do what suits you) and warm over medium heat.
4) Dip ravioli in the egg mixture, shake off excess.
5) Dip eggy ravioli in crumbs, shake off excess.
6) Place ravioli in hot oil. Fry 3-4 minutes per side.
7) Pour sauce into a small sauce pain and warm over low heat.
8) Put fried raviolis on a paper towel-lined plate.
9) Serve ravioli with sauce. Eat. Enjoy!
How Did it Go?
Great! I put this out as an appetizer and people devoured and praised it, despite not having ever heard of it before. (Not a lot of St. Louisians on hand here in Seattle.) So, concept proved as far as I was concerned.
What Would I Change?
- I started heating the oil a little late, so the first couple of ravioli weren't as crispy as I would have liked. I wound up adjusting this for my Iron Foodie recipe.
- The cookie crumbs wound up a little too big. They tasted ok, but it threw the texture off a little. (To me. Pretty sure my friends didn't notice/care.)
Before I launched into my Iron Foodie recipe, I decided to do a Proof of Concept pre-run (Mythbusters fan, yes).
I'd found plenty of easy-ish looking Toasted Ravioli recipes out on the interwebs, but I had no idea whether or not they would wind up tasting like the real thing.
Hey, what better time to take on a completely untried recipe than Thanksgiving? Oh, just about any time, I would normally say. Since I, however, am an experienced member of The School of Turkey Basting, I wind up with a fair amount of free time in the kitchen on Feast Day. So I jumped in.
What I Did:
1 egg
2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream
1 cup stuffing cubes
1 pumpkin cookie, stale
frying oil
1 package of Spinach and Cheese Ravioli
1 jar of Vodka sauce
1) Use a fork to mix together egg and cream in a shallow bowl.
2) Put the stuffing cubes and cookie into food processor and mix until the cubes are crumbs. Place in a bowl or on a small plate.
3) Fill a skillet with oil for frying (I like to go about 1/2 inch deep. You do what suits you) and warm over medium heat.
4) Dip ravioli in the egg mixture, shake off excess.
5) Dip eggy ravioli in crumbs, shake off excess.
6) Place ravioli in hot oil. Fry 3-4 minutes per side.
7) Pour sauce into a small sauce pain and warm over low heat.
8) Put fried raviolis on a paper towel-lined plate.
9) Serve ravioli with sauce. Eat. Enjoy!
How Did it Go?
Great! I put this out as an appetizer and people devoured and praised it, despite not having ever heard of it before. (Not a lot of St. Louisians on hand here in Seattle.) So, concept proved as far as I was concerned.
What Would I Change?
- I started heating the oil a little late, so the first couple of ravioli weren't as crispy as I would have liked. I wound up adjusting this for my Iron Foodie recipe.
- The cookie crumbs wound up a little too big. They tasted ok, but it threw the texture off a little. (To me. Pretty sure my friends didn't notice/care.)
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
E is for Foods that start with E?
While I wait and hope to become an Iron Foodie, it's also probably time to get back to regular business, yes?
We're on the letter E. Currently under consideration:
- eggs
- eggplant
- elk
Any suggestions from the peanut gallery? I'm open.
We're on the letter E. Currently under consideration:
- eggs
- eggplant
- elk
Any suggestions from the peanut gallery? I'm open.
Monday, December 6, 2010
I is for Iron Foodie Ingredient Sampling, part 2
Ideally I'd've talked about this _before_ posting my Iron Foodie entry recipe, but, well, Tech Week interfered. Consider this a prequel. : )
The Marx Foods Box of Mystery contained two ingredients that, in my opinion, needed a platform for useful/accurate tasting:
- Smoked Salt
- Tellicherry Peppercorns
(Of course you _can_ eat pepper and salt plain, but they don't tend to taste very good that way.)
What I did:
1) I equipped myself with a couple of steaks. Salt and pepper are the only things I like to put on a steak (credit to Alton Brown's I'm Just Here for the Food for this preference), so I figured this would make the differences between basic salt and pepper and the gourmet versions pretty apparent.
Salts on the left, peppers on the right. Grinder with the special pepper indicated by the purty pink ribbon.
2) I salted and peppered each side of the steaks and let them sit for 20 minutes while the broiler preheated.
Regular pepper on the left steak, Tellicherry on the right. Smoked salt across the top, regular table salt across the bottom.
3) I put the steaks in the broiler, 5 minutes per side.
4) I let the steaks rest as long as I could bear (seven minutes in this case) and served with sides of my choice (tots! brussels sprouts!)
How Did it Go?
- The Smoked Salt has a really, really strong scent before you cook it, which, to be honest, worried me a bit. It seemed that it could easily be overpowering. Fortunately, this was not the case. Cooking mellowed it out a little, while letting it keep the smokey edge. It worked really well with steak, and I bet would be good with lamb as well.
- The Tellicherry Peppercorns seemed to be both more and less subtle than your average black table pepper. The pepper taste was gentler, but the heat level was cranked up. *Full disclosure: I did go ahead and eat one of each type of peppercorn, just to confirm this impression. Whew. It confirmed both that opinion, plus my notion that eating pepper plain is just not a good idea.
If you'd like to see what I wound up doing with these ingredients, click here to see my Iron Foodie recipe: Toasted Ravioli.
The Marx Foods Box of Mystery contained two ingredients that, in my opinion, needed a platform for useful/accurate tasting:
- Smoked Salt
- Tellicherry Peppercorns
(Of course you _can_ eat pepper and salt plain, but they don't tend to taste very good that way.)
What I did:
1) I equipped myself with a couple of steaks. Salt and pepper are the only things I like to put on a steak (credit to Alton Brown's I'm Just Here for the Food for this preference), so I figured this would make the differences between basic salt and pepper and the gourmet versions pretty apparent.
Salts on the left, peppers on the right. Grinder with the special pepper indicated by the purty pink ribbon.
2) I salted and peppered each side of the steaks and let them sit for 20 minutes while the broiler preheated.
Regular pepper on the left steak, Tellicherry on the right. Smoked salt across the top, regular table salt across the bottom.
3) I put the steaks in the broiler, 5 minutes per side.
4) I let the steaks rest as long as I could bear (seven minutes in this case) and served with sides of my choice (tots! brussels sprouts!)
How Did it Go?
- The Smoked Salt has a really, really strong scent before you cook it, which, to be honest, worried me a bit. It seemed that it could easily be overpowering. Fortunately, this was not the case. Cooking mellowed it out a little, while letting it keep the smokey edge. It worked really well with steak, and I bet would be good with lamb as well.
- The Tellicherry Peppercorns seemed to be both more and less subtle than your average black table pepper. The pepper taste was gentler, but the heat level was cranked up. *Full disclosure: I did go ahead and eat one of each type of peppercorn, just to confirm this impression. Whew. It confirmed both that opinion, plus my notion that eating pepper plain is just not a good idea.
If you'd like to see what I wound up doing with these ingredients, click here to see my Iron Foodie recipe: Toasted Ravioli.
Friday, December 3, 2010
T is for Toasted Ravioli or I is for Iron Foodie Contest Recipe
Ok, Tech Week almost done, deadline looming, here, finally, is The Recipe.
(Here's Marx Food's Iron Foodie Contest explained, in case you're just now tuning in.)
Toasted Ravioli is a local specialty in my hometown of St. Louis, Missouri and is very hard to find elsewhere. In fact, most people who haven't spent time in StL have never even heard of it. This is their bad luck, because it's very very very good. How good? The only hometown food I miss more is White Castle.
Since, as I mentioned earlier, I was already thinking in an Italian/meat-ward direction, Toasted Ravioli was a most acceptable brain wave. As usual, I hit the internet for some recipe theory research, and found some useful stuff.
In fact, I did a sort of proof of concept experiment as a Thanksgiving appetizer. It was definitely well received. But I decided Iron Foodie deserved no less than true, complete insanity. So, I made mine from scratch. Research debts also in the direction of Cooks dot com and Betty Crocker's New Cookbook (the 1st cookbook I owned as an adult).
What I Did:
~ Pasta ~
1/3 cup of macerated Dulse Seaweed*
2 large eggs
1 TBLSP olive oil
1/2 tsn Smoked Salt*
2+ cups flour
0) Soak the seaweed in boiling water for 15 minutes (this is macerating. big word, simple concept.)
1) Combine eggs, seaweed, oil and salt in a food processor until blended.
2) Put the flour on a decent sized flat surface and create a well in the middle (a sort of volcano shaped thing; the crater is to hold the liquid.)
3) Slowly work the flour into the liquid until completely combined. (This gets messy. No worries.)
4) At this point you will most likely have to adjust your pasta dough. If it is too dry (crumbly, not sticking together, i.e., what happened to me), gradually incorporate little bits of liquid (TBLSP at a time) until you achieve a nice dough consistency. If it is too sticky, gradually incorporate bits of flour.
5) Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface for 5-8 minutes.
6) Plastic wrap the dough and rest in the fridge for several hours.
~ Filling ~
1 cup cubed squash
2 TBLSP olive oil
1 lb. ground pork
1/2 tsp Smoked Salt*
1/2 tsp ground Tellicherry Peppercorns*
1/3 of a medium sized onion, chopped
1/4 cup fresh sage
2 TBLSP fresh parsley
2 cloves garlic, SMASHED!
1/4 cup white wine
1/3 cup macerated Dried Wild Porcini Mushrooms*
1/2 cup cottage cheese
7) Parboil squash
8) Cook oil, pork, salt and pepper in a skillet over medium heat until pork is thoroughly cooked.
9) Add all other Filling ingredients (except cottage cheese) to skillet, cover and reduce heat to low; stir occasionally.
10) Cut one third off of the chilled pasta dough.
11) Roll it through a pasta machine on the widest setting. (If you don't have a pasta machine, use a rolling pin and skip ahead to step 15.)
12) Fold the pasta sheet in on itself from the ends, roughly into thirds. Sprinkle lightly with flour. The idea is to get it to a width where you can turn it 90 degrees and run in through the pasta machine again.
13) Click the pasta machine down one setting and run the pasta sheet through again.
14) Repeat 13 until you get the pasta as thin as you want it. (For me, this takes it down to the narrowest setting. So you can read through the pasta. Your taste may absolutely vary.)
15) Turn the heat off on the filling.
16) Lay the pasta sheet out on waxed paper. Cut pasta circles out of it with an upside down glass. (There are other ravioli cutting methods, but this one best appeals to my innate sense of laziness.)
17) Add filling and cottage cheese to food processor. Pulse for about 20 seconds, until everything is just combined.
18) Spoon small heaps of filling on one pasta circle.
19) Wet the entire edge of the circle (use water, butter, milk, whatever really…..I used the water from macerating the Porcini Mushrooms).
20) Place a second circle on top, and gently press edges together all the way around.
***It's right about here that this becomes the longest recipe I've ever done on this blog. HUZZAH FOR IRON FOODIENESS!***
~ Sauce ~
1 macerated Aji Panca Chili*
1/2 heavy whipping cream
1 clove garlic SMASHED!
1 can tomato sauce
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp basil
21) Slice open the chili and scrape out the seeds and membranes.
22) Chop chili and add it, garlic and cream to a small sauce pan. Warm over low heat.
23) Just as the cream wants to try boiling, turn off the heat.
24) Dump saucepan contents into food processor. Blend until completely mixed.
25) Return sauce to pan. Add tomato sauce, oregano and basil and warm over low heat, stirring occasionally.
~ Toasted…ing…ness…stuff... ~
1 egg
3 TBLSP heavy whipping cream
2 cups stuffing cubes
~ 1/4 cup parmesan cheese, grated
oil for frying
26) Fill a skillet with oil for frying (I like to go about 1/2 inch deep. You do what suits you.) and warm over medium heat.
27) Use a fork to mix together eggs and cream in a bowl.
28) Put the stuffing cubes and cheese into food processor and mix until the cubes are crumbs. Place in a bowl or on a small plate.
29) Dip ravioli in the egg mixture, shake off excess.
30) Dip eggy ravioli in crumbs, shake off excess.
31) Place ravioli in skillet. Fry 3-4 minutes per side.
32) Put fried raviolis on a paper towel-lined plate.
33) Serve ravioli with sauce. Eat. Enjoy!
How Did It Go?
It went surprisingly well, given the large number of new things i was trying (ingredients and techniques), and considering that I've not made scratch ravioli in a long long time. Texture was right on, flavor was pretty nice. Mostly a win here.
Also:
- The seaweed gave a really neat color to the pasta dough.
- The mushrooms rounded out the taste of the pork in a way that surprised me.
- The chili sauce wound up being not too hot for me, which is something of a miracle, frankly. And not being in pain, i was able to appreciate the flavor.
What Would I Do Differently?
- More filling! I put about a teaspoon's worth of filling in each ravioli, which wound up being not quite enough. The pasta to filling ratio was too high, which buried a lot of the flavor of the filling when everything was put together. Lacked balance.
- More vegetables! I think I'd up the butternut squash ratio a bit, just to get more vitamins involved. I mean, since you're eating something fried, it's nice to strike a blow for Stealth Health when you can.
(Here's Marx Food's Iron Foodie Contest explained, in case you're just now tuning in.)
Toasted Ravioli is a local specialty in my hometown of St. Louis, Missouri and is very hard to find elsewhere. In fact, most people who haven't spent time in StL have never even heard of it. This is their bad luck, because it's very very very good. How good? The only hometown food I miss more is White Castle.
Since, as I mentioned earlier, I was already thinking in an Italian/meat-ward direction, Toasted Ravioli was a most acceptable brain wave. As usual, I hit the internet for some recipe theory research, and found some useful stuff.
In fact, I did a sort of proof of concept experiment as a Thanksgiving appetizer. It was definitely well received. But I decided Iron Foodie deserved no less than true, complete insanity. So, I made mine from scratch. Research debts also in the direction of Cooks dot com and Betty Crocker's New Cookbook (the 1st cookbook I owned as an adult).
What I Did:
~ Pasta ~
1/3 cup of macerated Dulse Seaweed*
2 large eggs
1 TBLSP olive oil
1/2 tsn Smoked Salt*
2+ cups flour
0) Soak the seaweed in boiling water for 15 minutes (this is macerating. big word, simple concept.)
1) Combine eggs, seaweed, oil and salt in a food processor until blended.
2) Put the flour on a decent sized flat surface and create a well in the middle (a sort of volcano shaped thing; the crater is to hold the liquid.)
3) Slowly work the flour into the liquid until completely combined. (This gets messy. No worries.)
4) At this point you will most likely have to adjust your pasta dough. If it is too dry (crumbly, not sticking together, i.e., what happened to me), gradually incorporate little bits of liquid (TBLSP at a time) until you achieve a nice dough consistency. If it is too sticky, gradually incorporate bits of flour.
5) Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface for 5-8 minutes.
6) Plastic wrap the dough and rest in the fridge for several hours.
~ Filling ~
1 cup cubed squash
2 TBLSP olive oil
1 lb. ground pork
1/2 tsp Smoked Salt*
1/2 tsp ground Tellicherry Peppercorns*
1/3 of a medium sized onion, chopped
1/4 cup fresh sage
2 TBLSP fresh parsley
2 cloves garlic, SMASHED!
1/4 cup white wine
1/3 cup macerated Dried Wild Porcini Mushrooms*
1/2 cup cottage cheese
7) Parboil squash
8) Cook oil, pork, salt and pepper in a skillet over medium heat until pork is thoroughly cooked.
9) Add all other Filling ingredients (except cottage cheese) to skillet, cover and reduce heat to low; stir occasionally.
10) Cut one third off of the chilled pasta dough.
11) Roll it through a pasta machine on the widest setting. (If you don't have a pasta machine, use a rolling pin and skip ahead to step 15.)
12) Fold the pasta sheet in on itself from the ends, roughly into thirds. Sprinkle lightly with flour. The idea is to get it to a width where you can turn it 90 degrees and run in through the pasta machine again.
13) Click the pasta machine down one setting and run the pasta sheet through again.
14) Repeat 13 until you get the pasta as thin as you want it. (For me, this takes it down to the narrowest setting. So you can read through the pasta. Your taste may absolutely vary.)
15) Turn the heat off on the filling.
16) Lay the pasta sheet out on waxed paper. Cut pasta circles out of it with an upside down glass. (There are other ravioli cutting methods, but this one best appeals to my innate sense of laziness.)
17) Add filling and cottage cheese to food processor. Pulse for about 20 seconds, until everything is just combined.
18) Spoon small heaps of filling on one pasta circle.
19) Wet the entire edge of the circle (use water, butter, milk, whatever really…..I used the water from macerating the Porcini Mushrooms).
20) Place a second circle on top, and gently press edges together all the way around.
***It's right about here that this becomes the longest recipe I've ever done on this blog. HUZZAH FOR IRON FOODIENESS!***
~ Sauce ~
1 macerated Aji Panca Chili*
1/2 heavy whipping cream
1 clove garlic SMASHED!
1 can tomato sauce
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp basil
21) Slice open the chili and scrape out the seeds and membranes.
22) Chop chili and add it, garlic and cream to a small sauce pan. Warm over low heat.
23) Just as the cream wants to try boiling, turn off the heat.
24) Dump saucepan contents into food processor. Blend until completely mixed.
25) Return sauce to pan. Add tomato sauce, oregano and basil and warm over low heat, stirring occasionally.
~ Toasted…ing…ness…stuff... ~
1 egg
3 TBLSP heavy whipping cream
2 cups stuffing cubes
~ 1/4 cup parmesan cheese, grated
oil for frying
26) Fill a skillet with oil for frying (I like to go about 1/2 inch deep. You do what suits you.) and warm over medium heat.
27) Use a fork to mix together eggs and cream in a bowl.
28) Put the stuffing cubes and cheese into food processor and mix until the cubes are crumbs. Place in a bowl or on a small plate.
29) Dip ravioli in the egg mixture, shake off excess.
30) Dip eggy ravioli in crumbs, shake off excess.
31) Place ravioli in skillet. Fry 3-4 minutes per side.
32) Put fried raviolis on a paper towel-lined plate.
33) Serve ravioli with sauce. Eat. Enjoy!
How Did It Go?
It went surprisingly well, given the large number of new things i was trying (ingredients and techniques), and considering that I've not made scratch ravioli in a long long time. Texture was right on, flavor was pretty nice. Mostly a win here.
Also:
- The seaweed gave a really neat color to the pasta dough.
- The mushrooms rounded out the taste of the pork in a way that surprised me.
- The chili sauce wound up being not too hot for me, which is something of a miracle, frankly. And not being in pain, i was able to appreciate the flavor.
What Would I Do Differently?
- More filling! I put about a teaspoon's worth of filling in each ravioli, which wound up being not quite enough. The pasta to filling ratio was too high, which buried a lot of the flavor of the filling when everything was put together. Lacked balance.
- More vegetables! I think I'd up the butternut squash ratio a bit, just to get more vitamins involved. I mean, since you're eating something fried, it's nice to strike a blow for Stealth Health when you can.
Monday, November 29, 2010
I is for Iron Foodie Ingredient Sampling
Two of the items in The Marx Foods Mystery Box were
- Dried Wild Porcini Mushrooms
and
- Dried Aji Panca Chilies
Neither of which I had ever, to my knowledge, eaten. Yay for new food!
First things first, before I could really taste them, I had to macerate them...
...in this case, with boiling water.
And then wait 15-20 minutes.
The porcini mushroom had a nice intense flavor that, in weight, reminded me a bit of chicken liver. The texture was a bit chewy, so it's clear that I can't use these "raw".
The chili bits were, ummm, weeeeeell, I considered them spicy, but I tend to order a one-star at Thai and Indian restaurants. Even I can admit they were not really painful. And I could actually taste the red chili flavor. So "mild" is probably an accurate description.
Odds are good that we will find both of these ingredients in my Signature Recipe. :)
- Dried Wild Porcini Mushrooms
and
- Dried Aji Panca Chilies
Neither of which I had ever, to my knowledge, eaten. Yay for new food!
First things first, before I could really taste them, I had to macerate them...
...in this case, with boiling water.
And then wait 15-20 minutes.
The porcini mushroom had a nice intense flavor that, in weight, reminded me a bit of chicken liver. The texture was a bit chewy, so it's clear that I can't use these "raw".
The chili bits were, ummm, weeeeeell, I considered them spicy, but I tend to order a one-star at Thai and Indian restaurants. Even I can admit they were not really painful. And I could actually taste the red chili flavor. So "mild" is probably an accurate description.
Odds are good that we will find both of these ingredients in my Signature Recipe. :)
T is for Tech Week
The show I'm rehearsing is heading into Tech Week. (For those of you not in theatrrr, this means every waking moment, which will include more of those than usual, will be focused towards getting together a performance-ready piece by the end of the week.)
So I'm spending the evening working on my Iron Foodie recipe. Stay tuned.
So I'm spending the evening working on my Iron Foodie recipe. Stay tuned.
Monday, November 22, 2010
I is for Iron Foodie Thoughts
Not to give too much away before the actual recipe, but I've been chewing on the contest a bit (pun intended) and here's where I am:
- Everything in the box is essentially a spice (not technically, granted, but due to the dried-ness of things that would otherwise be more feature-able). This is both a great thing and a scary thing. (Yay, I can do anything! Whoa, I could do anything. Like that.)
- What do I like to cook? I ask myself, in order to narrow things down a bit. Answer: breakfast, dessert, Italian food, meat. I'm likely to do something in one or more of those categories.
- The fennel pollen is The Ingredient Least Likely to be Used. It's basically a more intense fennel experience. And, well, I kind of hate fennel. Not bell pepper level hate, but.....it reminds me of licorice (they're not related), which reminds me of NyQuil, which reminds me of unpleasant times.....you see the problem.
- Next up will be some ingredient tastings. Every time a cheftestant on a cooking reality show doesn't do this, I get very indignant at them (from the safety of my couch; yeah, I'm totally an armchair sous chef). So it's be pretty stupid of me not to. I'll keep you posted.
- Everything in the box is essentially a spice (not technically, granted, but due to the dried-ness of things that would otherwise be more feature-able). This is both a great thing and a scary thing. (Yay, I can do anything! Whoa, I could do anything. Like that.)
- What do I like to cook? I ask myself, in order to narrow things down a bit. Answer: breakfast, dessert, Italian food, meat. I'm likely to do something in one or more of those categories.
- The fennel pollen is The Ingredient Least Likely to be Used. It's basically a more intense fennel experience. And, well, I kind of hate fennel. Not bell pepper level hate, but.....it reminds me of licorice (they're not related), which reminds me of NyQuil, which reminds me of unpleasant times.....you see the problem.
- Next up will be some ingredient tastings. Every time a cheftestant on a cooking reality show doesn't do this, I get very indignant at them (from the safety of my couch; yeah, I'm totally an armchair sous chef). So it's be pretty stupid of me not to. I'll keep you posted.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
W is for What's In The Box??!? part 2
Other items in The Mysterious Marx Foods Box of Mystery:
~ Dried Aji Panca Chilies ~
The label says they are "mild". Being a spice wuss, I'm betting a more accurate assessment is "comparatively mild".
~ Dried Wild Porcini Mushrooms ~
Massive score!
~ Tellicherry Peppercorns ~
I did some pepper taste experiments a few years back, which is what led me to the wonderfulness that is White Pepper. I look forward to seeing how this one compares.
~ Dulse Seaweed ~
Reply hazy. Try again later.
~ Maple Sugar ~
Oh baby. This ingredient is in serious danger of not making it into recipe consideration because I may just have to eat it. I'll put it in one of those giant straws like I used to get at the roller skating rink and then ride the sugar high for the next 12 hours.
~ Dried Aji Panca Chilies ~
The label says they are "mild". Being a spice wuss, I'm betting a more accurate assessment is "comparatively mild".
~ Dried Wild Porcini Mushrooms ~
Massive score!
~ Tellicherry Peppercorns ~
I did some pepper taste experiments a few years back, which is what led me to the wonderfulness that is White Pepper. I look forward to seeing how this one compares.
~ Dulse Seaweed ~
Reply hazy. Try again later.
~ Maple Sugar ~
Oh baby. This ingredient is in serious danger of not making it into recipe consideration because I may just have to eat it. I'll put it in one of those giant straws like I used to get at the roller skating rink and then ride the sugar high for the next 12 hours.
Monday, November 15, 2010
W is for What's In The Box??!?
Turns out The Mystery Box of Mysterious Iron Foodie Ingredients was on my doorstep when I got home Friday:
It was, without contest, the best smelling box I've ever opened.
Alas that there was no elk.
It was, without contest, the best smelling box I've ever opened.
Alas that there was no elk. Ah well. All of the ingredients were dry, so it would've had to've been elk jerky, anyway. Try as I might, I just can't make myself feel too bad about a lack of elk jerky in my life.
So there we have it. The strongest scented ingredients were the vanilla bourbon beans, the smoked salt (smells like BACON!) and the fennel pollen. More on the, ahem, subtler ingredients tomorrow.
So there we have it. The strongest scented ingredients were the vanilla bourbon beans, the smoked salt (smells like BACON!) and the fennel pollen. More on the, ahem, subtler ingredients tomorrow.(Not to worry. In the meantime, I'll be busy formulating my evil, contest-winning plan! Er, I mean, recipe. Yeah. Mwah ha ha ha ha!)
Friday, November 12, 2010
Z is for ZOMG! Iron Foodie Contest!
Well hey howdy hi, I got chosen to compete in the Marx Foods Iron Foodie Contest!
Squee!!!
As I type, apparently a box of 8 tasty food items is winging its way to me. I will need to use (at least?) 3 of these items in a Signature Recipe.
Since the box has already been sent, I have no scruples about telling you I'm crossing my fingers for Elk. I mean, "E" is next on the agenda, after all.
Oh, and truffles. Just because, hey: TRUFFLES.
Squee!!!
As I type, apparently a box of 8 tasty food items is winging its way to me. I will need to use (at least?) 3 of these items in a Signature Recipe.
Since the box has already been sent, I have no scruples about telling you I'm crossing my fingers for Elk. I mean, "E" is next on the agenda, after all.
Oh, and truffles. Just because, hey: TRUFFLES.
Friday, November 5, 2010
I Wanna Be an Iron Foodie! (I Wanna Live a Life of Duty)
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- Why do you want to compete in this challenge?
Besides the fact that I would adore the chance to be on Iron Chef someday (Iron Chef Fantasy Camp! Who's with me?), messing about with new ingredients is absolutely why i started this blog. It's a love match!
- Limitations of time/space notwithstanding, whose kitchen would you like to spend the day in & why? Julia Child, Thomas Keller, Ferran Adria, James Beard, Marie-Antoine Careme, or The Swedish Chef?
Totally The Swedish Chef. Not only does he personify the combination of my two greatest passions (cooking and puppets), but he was just such a pioneer in the field of Ballistic Gastronomy; it would be an honor to learn from such a master.
- What morsel are you most likely to swipe from family & friends’ plates when they aren’t looking?
Pickles. Can't get enough of them. (NOT PREGNANT, don't even suggest it.)
- Sum your childhood up in one meal.
Hamberger Casserole. Made in a classic Corningware dish, this family favorite recipe included not only mashed potatoes, but also Campbell's Tomato Soup and Velveeta. The cooking in my house growing up was all about the balance between comfort and convenience. (Frankly, I'm still a fan of this approach, though Mr. Husband draws the line at Velveeta.)
- The one mainstream food you can’t stand?
Bell. Peppers. Horrible, Fascist vegetables. The teeniest little amount of of bell pepper in a dish and BOOM! the flavor just takes over everything. Bleh and double bleh. Also, they give me gas. That's not good for anyone.
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